{"id":60210,"date":"2026-08-01T09:03:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T09:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/60210\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T09:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T09:03:12","slug":"favorites-for-stage-1-of-the-2026-tour-de-france-femmes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/60210\/","title":{"rendered":"Favorites for Stage 1 of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recovered from the men\u2019s Tour de France? Good, because the women begin their Tour de France Femmes<\/a> on Saturday, August 1. The organizers have designed nine challenging stages, beginning with a day that starts and finishes in Lausanne, Switzerland. Who will claim the opening stage and the first yellow jersey? IDL Pro Cycling looks ahead.Stage 1 Route of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes\"etappe-1-tdff\"\/<\/p>\n

With the Tour beginning in Switzerland, the riders already know they should not expect a flat opening stage around Lausanne. The peloton will race for 138 kilometres, and the profile contains perhaps two short stretches of flat valley roads, followed by a level approach to the final 2.6-kilometre uphill run to the finish.<\/p>\n

The C\u00f4te de Ch\u00e2bles, measuring 1.7 kilometres at 7.1 percent, the C\u00f4te de Villars-le-Comte, at 4.0 kilometres and 5.5 percent, and the C\u00f4te de Vulliens, at 3.1 kilometres and 5.4 percent, provide plenty of terrain on which to make the race after approximately 50, 83 and 97 kilometres.<\/p>\n

There is one problem for any potential breakaway riders: after 116 kilometres, the climbing is finished and around 20 relatively flat kilometres remain on the way back towards Lausanne. The finish is located at the top of the C\u00f4te Saint-Fran\u00e7ois. At 2.6 kilometres with an average gradient of 4.6 percent, it is what cyclists often describe as a steady, manageable climb.<\/p>\n

The problem is that 4.6 percent is only the average. With one half-kilometre section rising at just 2.6 percent and the final 600 metres almost flat, there must also be steeper sections elsewhere to bring the overall average up. The opening 500 metres climb at approximately 6 percent, while another 500-metre section after the first kilometre averages around 8 percent.<\/p>\n

Pure climbers can certainly survive a finish like this, but for an explosive climber, the final ascent offers an ideal opportunity to drop the genuinely fast sprinters before the road levels out near the line.<\/p>\n

\"slotklim-tdff-etappe-1\"\/<\/p>\n

Times
Start: 2:40 p.m. CEST
Finish: around 5:53 p.m. CEST<\/p>\n

2026 Tour de France Femmes, weather forecast\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conditions should be good for racing in Lausanne on Saturday. Heavy rain is forecast for the Swiss city during the morning, but by the time the race begins at 2:40 PM, the wind should have dropped to a light southerly breeze. The sun is also expected to appear, with temperatures potentially reaching 32 degrees Celsius.<\/p>\n

2026 Tour de France Femmes, stage 1 favoritesThe faster riders will have marked this stage in red, although any sprinter hoping to win must also be capable of handling a demanding climb. Lorena Wiebes<\/a> can do that, but within SD Worx-Protime, a scenario built around Lotte Kopecky<\/a> may be even more realistic. It is clear that the Dutch team has several cards to play.Several other squads have similar options. Marianne Vos<\/a> will hope to deliver victory for Visma | Lease a Bike, although Sarah Van Dam could also handle a finish of this nature. Franziska Koch and C\u00e9lia Gery offer FDJ United-SUEZ two explosive options, but what happens if Demi Vollering decides to produce a major effort? In that scenario, Visma could also unleash Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot, while Elisa Longo Borghini may attempt something similar for UAE Team ADQ.<\/p>\n

The Emirati squad can also turn to Silvia Persico on an uphill finish like this, while Chiara Consonni is another dangerous contender for CANYON\/\/SRAM. Liane Lippert will have highlighted this stage for Movistar, although the exceptionally young Paula Ostiz is also an explosive rider. Alongside Elisa Balsamo, Lidl-Trek has Lucinda Brand, who combines a fast finish with slightly stronger climbing ability.<\/p>\n

Going through the teams one by one means reaching one of the leading favorites slightly later: Kim Le Court of AG Insurance-Soudal. Noemi R\u00fcegg is another important name, particularly on home roads for EF Education-Oatly, while Fenix-Premier Tech will naturally hope Puck Pieterse can use her explosiveness. For Charlotte Kool, however, this finish is likely to be too difficult.<\/p>\n

The outsiders? Letizia Paternoster could produce an exceptional performance for Liv AlUla Jayco, while Sandrine Tas has shown herself to be a highly versatile rider during her first months with Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9.<\/p>\n

2026 Tour de France Femmes, IDL Pro Cycling top picks\u00a0<\/p>\n

Top Favorites: Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) and Marianne Vos (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Dark horses: Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime), Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal), Celia Gery (FDJ United-SUEZ), Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Premier Tech), and Liane Lippert (Movistar)
Long shots: Demi Vollering, Franziska Koch (FDJ United-SUEZ), Elisa Longo Borghini, Silvia Persico (UAE ADQ), Chiara Consonni (CANYON\/\/SRAM), Lucinda Brand, Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek), Noemie Ru\u00ebgg (EF Education-Oatly), Letizia Paternoster, Sandrine Tas (Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9), and Paula Ostiz (Movistar)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recovered from the men\u2019s Tour de France? Good, because the women begin their Tour de France Femmes on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1428,5,8770,4000,4001,3999,3506,6499],"class_list":["post-60210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-cycling","tag-france","tag-idl-productions","tag-lorena-wiebes","tag-lotte-kopecky","tag-marianne-vos","tag-previews","tag-tour-de-france-femmes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}